Dejan Kovacevic notes that the Pirates were hurt last night by a strange outfield shift that saw Lastings Milledge practically playing well into left-center field, even against right-handed batters, and caused seven (!) fly balls to drop in left field without him ever really having a chance at catching them. They definitely mentioned it on the San Francisco broadcast, which I watched for a bit last night, and it was pretty noticeable at a few points earlier in the game.
I didn’t think much about it at the time, because it’s not the first time I’ve seen the shift. It’s what they use all the time at PNC Park, usually with good results (I suspect that it may be partially why Lastings Milledge and Nyjer Morgan combined for such a ridiculous UZR in left at PNC last year, though I obviously have very little evidence for that sort of thing), to make up for the huge left-center gap in the park. I’m almost positive I’ve seen them use it on the road in the past, though, which doesn’t make as much sense. I suppose the ostensible reason is that Lastings Milledge and Andrew McCutchen can both fly and cover a ton of ground, while Garrett Jones can’t, so shifting towards right theoretically lets them cover more of the field. That only works for balls that have enough hang time to run under, though, and many balls don’t, as was so painfully illustrated last night.
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